1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to an assembly for feeding and milking animals and furthermore to a feed platform, a milking pre-treatment device, a milking post-treatment device, a cleaning device, a separation device and a milking system for use in such an assembly. The invention also relates to a method of feeding and milking animals in particular animals located on a feeding platform.
2. Description of the Related Art
Feeding systems are known comprising a movable feed platform with a number of feeding places and a drive unit for driving the feed platform. Such systems may also be provided in combination with e.g. automatic milking systems for milking the animals on the feed platform.
A known assembly for automatically milking large herds of animals comprises a feed platform with individual stalls, each for at least partially confining one animal. Each stall also has its own teat cups and its own feed trough which move together with the platform. At the circumference of the platform there is provided a connection zone where teat cups are connected to the teats of an animal that is present on the platform. For the connection there may be used stationary connecting robots known per se or pivoting robots or robots moving along rails. There may further be provided zones for washing the udder of an animal or for washing the animal itself, and there may be provided a zone where feed is supplied to a feed trough. An assembly of this type is known from US-A1-2002/0033138. A similar devices is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,058.
Other assemblies are known in which sets of teat cups are arranged separately from a platform. In these known assemblies however, the animals are not allowed to move freely in an area and must be led to the feed platform. In general, the entrance to such platforms is restricted and the animals are also confined in individual milking stalls while on the platform. Dairy animals however find it unpleasant to be milked in a closed area, such as stalls provided on a platform which limit the freedom of movement of a dairy animal to a high extent. Furthermore, dairy animals appear to experience walking to and boarding such platforms as unpleasant and may therefore by very unwilling to be lead to or from the platform, which may result in problems to get an animal onto or from the platform, leading to insufficient occupation of the platform and thus reduced milk production. Additionally, assemblies are known in which animals may be housed on a rotatable platform. For the purpose of milking, the animals may be sequentially moved adjacent to a milking device comprising teat cups. Assemblies of the above mentioned types are known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,358,000 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,103,912.
It is also known from FR-A-2,649,858 to dispose sets of teat cups separately from a platform. The housing system as used in FR-A-2,649,858 is not explicitly described, but since the animals have to enter the circular platform from within the platform it is most likely that the animals have to be led from the outside of the platform towards the inside. In addition the assembly known from FR-A-2,649,858 also suffers from the disadvantage that a dairy animal is to be milked in a closed area, such as the stalls provided on the platform disclosed therein which limit the freedom of movement of a dairy animal to a high extent. Each stall is closed by two gates, so that this also restricts the free movement of animals since an animal has to board the platform at a specific position. Furthermore, dairy animals appear to experience walking to and boarding the platform as unpleasant and may therefore by very unwilling to be lead to the platform, which may result in problems to get an animal onto or from the platform, leading to insufficient occupation of the platform and thus reduced milk production.
In addition an assembly is known from international patent application WO 02/19807 and the article “Rund und ohne Futtertisch”, DLZ Agrarmagazin, of March 2002, pages 120 and 121. Herein a standard feed platform is described, provided with individual milking stalls, each milking stall comprising associated teat cups and its own feed trough. The access to and the exit from the feed platform is controlled by means of a number of controlled gates. When the animals are to be milked, automatic driving devices are used to drive the cows towards the feed platform. During milking the rotational speed of the feed platform is adjusted in such a way that an animal will spend approximately 10 to 15 minutes on the feed platform (i.e. one rotation of the platform takes 10 to 15 minutes). When there is no need for milking, the assembly is used as a feed platform. In this case the automatic driving devices are not used, but the controlled gates are. Moreover, the rotational speed of the platform is then adjusted in such a way that one rotation will take approximately 30 minutes. Although this known assembly may be expected to provide an enhanced efficiency upon milking large herds, this known assembly has a number of drawbacks limiting its efficiency. It has been found that the use of automatic driving devices leads to unrest with some of the dairy animals, and these animals may then be inclined to consider the feed platform as unpleasant. This unrest will not only result in a reduced milk yield with some animals, but these animals will also be inclined not to go to the feed platform voluntarily. Consequently, when there is no need for milking, and the platform is used as a feed platform, these animals will walk more slowly to the platform or even block the gates. This may lead to further unrest and to insufficient feed consumption, which is undesirable, of course. A further drawback of the known assembly is that the dairy animals are not able to go voluntarily to the platform for being milked. As it has been found with automatic milking robots that are freely accessible to dairy animals, a voluntary walk to the milking machine for being milked would improve the milk production and the animal health.